The latest version of locally developed office software suite is moving into Chong Wa Dae, marking a new landmark in its struggle against the dominant alternative of Microsoft Office. Haansoft, the domestic software maker, said Chong Wa Dae bought 200 copies of Hancom Office 2005, which the company deployed late last year to counter Microsoft Office. Hancom Office 2005 is composed of three main software _ Hangul word, Nexel spreadsheet and Hancom Slide presentation _ as the equivalents to Word, Excel and Powerpoint of Microsoft package. This is the milestone achievement for Hancom Office 2005. We hope other government agencies to follow suit of Chong Wa Dae, Haansoft chief executive Baek Jong-jin said. An official who operates the computer system in the presidential office confirmed the purchase of the Hancom Office 2005 bundle. Oor the time being, we will use both Hancom Office and Microsoft Office. If the former increases its reliability, we plan to crank up its use on an incremental basis, he said. The Ministry of Science and Technology already started presentations with Hancom Slide and showed its viability in a new-year report to president Roh Moo-hyun early this year. Baek claimed Hancom Office 2005 has the ability to strengthen its standing because the indigenous Korean-language bundle provides full-featured functions at about a tenth of the price of Microsoft Office. Other ministries and public corporations are now asking about features of our office program and its interoperability with that of Microsoft, Baek noted. The private sector like Hana Bank, the nation third-largest lender, also shows interest to the Hancom Office programs. The 575 branches of Hana Bank start to use our Hancom Office. The bank will start replacing Excel with our spreadsheet software soon, Baek said. He added Haansoft and Hana Bank have collaborated since last December to adjust its Nexel to the bank requirements and Hana confirmed Nexel interoperability with Excel. A spokesman of Hana Bank said the bank might switch its main spreadsheet program to a non-Microsoft product and checked the functions of Nexel. However, he refused to comment whether or not the contact with Haansoft is imminent, citing a company policy. Hana Bank is in a legal dispute with Microsoft Korea, which filed a complaint with the police in February that Hana had used pirated versions of its software worth 3 billion won ($3 million) on 61 percent of its total 11,400 computers.